Send out a positive message
Without a Yes vote, we cannot continue our role as a member with the positive attitude that gained us even more than we might have imagined when we joined the EEC in 1973.
We have got plenty of warning that we could continue only as a non-playing member of the EU.
Now that no-one can clearly identify any aspect of the Lisbon Treaty which poses a major national problem for us, and the Government has obtained guarantees which put to rest the issues which surfaced during the last Lisbon campaign, we would become the EU’s hurlers on the ditch, if we vote No.
We need to send out a positive message, reaffirming our role in the Union, which has transformed Ireland for the better, and offers us the best prospect of a bright future.
Say No, and whatever else happens, the international financial press will stir up speculation about this country being forced out of the EU; that may push overseas investors to charge as much as 3% extra interest on our government borrowings; and those competing with us for foreign direct investment and jobs will have a field day highlighting the risks for international investment in Ireland.
Farmers must spare no effort in mobilising a Yes vote. They reaped the immediate benefits of EEC membership through the Common Agricultural Policy, and much of our multi-billion net transfer since 1973 — amounting at one point (1991) to 7.4% of our GDP.
EU membership has enabled us to double our food and drink industry over the last 12 years, to the point where we are now the largest net exporter of beef, lamb and dairy ingredients within the EU — which takes 73% of those exports.
The EU single farm payment alone, at €1.2 billion per year, is a lifeline to farmers.
Farmers have leaders they can trust, in IFA President Padraig Walshe and ICMSA President Jackie Cahill, both strongly recommending a Yes vote.
In contrast, for many ordinary citizens, the EU is remote from their lives, and they are tempted to take out their alienation and anger at the Government by ignoring their leadership, and voting No — even though their livelihoods ultimately depend on the foreign companies which see Ireland as a gateway to the EU’s 500m consumers, and on the European Central Bank which has invested in our future to the tune of at least €7 billion.
The warning from one of our biggest employers, Intel manager Jim O’Hara, that rejection by Ireland of an EU treaty for the third time in less than 10 years will create uncertainty in the minds of investors, cannot be ignored.
Farmers too are justified to be alienated and angry at the mishandling of our economy which has exacerbated market and weather problems for them in 2009.
At least, the optimistic have been rewarded with an Indian summer, and this is the time to stay positive, and vote Yes to Ireland continuing as a prosperous, free and peaceful EU member punching above our weight, in a Union which needs the updated structures agreed in the Lisbon Treaty, in order to compete successfully in the global economy.
